Foothill Gets Spruced Up

Photos by Jason KUROSUPaul Rabinov works along Foothill Boulevard as part of Spring Clean-Up on Saturday.

By Jason KUROSU

Foothill Boulevard received a tidying-up on Saturday morning thanks to the Foothill Boulevard Spring Clean-Up, sponsored by the Clean and Green Committee of the CV Town Council. Volunteers from First Baptist Church-La Crescenta, CV Robotics and the Fire House turned out for Saturday’s clean-up effort and could be seen along Foothill from Pennsylvania to Briggs avenues clearing away weeds and picking up trash.

Marti Marshall, councilmember alternate for the Crescenta Valley Town Council, said she hopes the event will become an annual endeavor. After convening at St. Luke’s Church, the volunteers spread out along Foothill, filling bags with refuse and weeds while an Allied Waste truck patrolled the street, picking up whatever the volunteers had collected.

Similar clean-up efforts have taken place in Glendale, most recently with the 25th annual clean up on Saturday, and in La Crescenta with the 19th annual Foothill Community Clean-Up Day at Dunsmore Park last October. It is estimated that four million people participate in clean up efforts around the country every year.

Emily Schultz, who heard about the event through First Baptist, brought her son Taylor along for the morning clean up, hoping to show him the value of community and giving back.

“If you spend your whole life trying to make yourself happy, you won’t find what you’re looking for,” said Schultz. “Helping others is what feeds the soul.”

Volunteers reported that the majority of the trash they found consisted of cigarette butts, extinguished on sidewalk pavements or tossed into the gutters, though even some broken glass was found, among other things.

Isaac Abarca, also from First Baptist, said that pedestrians and business owners along Foothill approached him throughout the day, applauding the efforts of the volunteers clad in orange vests and gardening gloves.

“Everyone was telling us how nice and clean everything looked,” said Abarca, who brought his daughter Angelina and his son Luke to the clean up. “Interaction with the community is vital.”